While Dutch designers [and married couple] Alissia Melka-Teichroew and Jan Habraken maintain their own separate and successful practices, they sometimes collaborate on special projects. The first one was Tree-Hooked, an ingenious modular wall rack that is not only flexible and functional but also beautiful enough to be decorative.

Name: Alissia Melka-Teichroew and Jan Habraken
Location: New York
Product: Tree-Hooked modular wall hanger

What inspired you to create the Tree-hooked modular wall hanger?
The shape was inspired by a flowering tree. It marries beauty with practicality; it’s both a sculptural and useful means of organizing clothing. Since it’s modular, it can expand to fit any space. Also, from a metaphorical perspective, a tree-inspired product seemed perfect as marriage is the bringing together of two family trees. Trees also symbolize stability, growth, and renewal.

What was the big aha! you had while creating this product? No big aha - just a design process... 

Can you describe your creative process? Our creative processes are very different. In general Jan is quick while Alissia contemplates longer. It’s different for every project.

What do you love about what you do? It changes, each day is different. What we might love one day we might hate the next . It all depends on the day. 

How would you sum up your aesthetic philosophy? We strive to add value to our designs by improving techniques, manufacturability, ergonomics, message or material to endow the product with new life. Taking a Darwinist approach to product design, we work with the conviction that products must demonstrate their superiority in order to survive. They will become “extinct” if they are poorly constructed and poorly designed. We strive to make designs that are both timeless and aesthetic, objects that possess what we call “sustainable beauty.”

What are you working on next? We run separate studios. We both work on multiple projects which are at different stages. The projects range from developing new products to consulting for companies like Kikkerland, Adidas and Kwantum on everything from small products to concepts and interior designs for stores.

What would you like to do, other than your current occupation?
Jan: Architect and chef.
Alissia: Chef, well it sort of changes every day.